1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a method for treating heart disease. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a method for treating congestive heart disease and related valvular dysfunction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Congestive heart disease is a progressive and debilitating illness. The disease is characterized by a progressive enlargement of the heart.
As the heart enlarges, the heart is performing an increasing amount of work in order to pump blood each heart beat. In time, the heart becomes so enlarged the heart cannot adequately supply blood. An afflicted patient is fatigued, unable to perform even simple exerting tasks and experiences pain and discomfort. Further, as the heart enlarges, the internal heart valves cannot adequately close. This impairs the function of the valves and further reduces the heart's ability to supply blood.
Causes of congestive heart disease are not fully known. In certain instances, congestive heart disease may result from viral infections. In such cases, the heart may enlarge to such an extent that the adverse consequences of heart enlargement continue after the viral infection has passed and the disease continues its progressively debilitating course.
Patients suffering from congestive heart disease are commonly grouped into four classes (i.e., Classes I, II, III and IV). In the early stages (e.g., Classes I and II), drug therapy is the commonly prescribed treatment. Drug therapy treats the symptoms of the disease and may slow the progression of the disease. Importantly, there is no cure for congestive heart disease. Even with drug therapy, the disease will progress. Further, he drugs may have adverse side effects.
Presently, the only permanent treatment for congestive heart disease is heart transplant. To qualify, a patient must be in the later stage of the disease (e.g., Classes III and IV with Class IV patients given priority for transplant). Such patients are extremely sick individuals. Class III patients have marked physical activity limitations and Class IV patients are symptomatic even at rest.
Due to the absence of effective intermediate treatment between drug therapy and heart transplant, Class III and IV patients will have suffered terribly before qualifying for heart transplant. Further, after such suffering, the available treatment is unsatisfactory. Heart transplant procedures are very risky, extremely invasive and expensive and only shortly extend a patient's life. For example, prior to transplant, a Class IV patient may have a life expectancy of 6 months to one-year. Heart transplant may improve the expectancy to about five years.
Unfortunately, not enough hearts are available for transplant to meet the needs of congestive heart disease patients. In the United States, in excess of 35,000 transplant candidates compete for only about 2,000 transplants per year. A transplant waiting list is about 8-12 months long on average and frequently a patient may have to wait about 1-2 years for a donor heart. While the availability of donor hearts has historically increased, the rate of increase is slowing dramatically. Even if the risks and expense of heart transplant could be tolerated, this treatment option is becoming increasingly unavailable. Further, many patients do not qualify for heart transplant for failure to meet any one of a number of qualifying criteria.
Congestive heart failure has an enormous societal impact In the United States alone, about five million people suffer from the disease (Classes I through IV combined). Alarmingly, congestive heart failure is one of the most rapidly accelerating diseases (about 400,000 new patients in the United States each year). Economic costs of the disease have been estimated at $38 billion annually.
Not surprising, substantial effort has been made to find alternative treatments for congestive heart disease. Recently, a new surgical procedure has been developed. Referred to as the Batista procedure, the surgical technique includes dissecting and removing portions of the heart in order to reduce heart volume. This is a radical new and experimental procedure subject to substantial controversy. Furthermore, the procedure is highly invasive, risky and expensive and commonly includes other expensive procedures (such as a concurrent heart valve replacement). Also, the treatment is limited to Class IV patients and, accordingly, provides no hope to patients facing ineffective drug treatment prior to Class IV. Finally, if the procedure fails, emergency heart transplant is the only available option.
Clearly, there is a need for alternative treatments applicable to both early and later stages of the disease to either stop the progressive nature of the disease or more drastically slow the progressive nature of congestive heart disease. Unfortunately, currently developed options are experimental, costly and problematic.
Cardiomyoplasty is a recently developed treatment for earlier stage congestive heart disease (e.g., as early as Class III dilated cardiomyopathy). In his procedure, the latissimus dorsi muscle (taken from the patients shoulder) is wrapped around the heart and chronically paced synchronously with ventricular systole. Pacing of the muscle results in muscle contraction to assist the contraction of the heart during systole.
Even though cardiomyoplasty has demonstrated symptomatic improvement, studies suggest the procedure only minimally improves cardiac performance. The procedure is highly invasive requiring harvesting a patient's muscle and an open chest approach (i.e., stemotomy) to access the heart. Furthermore, the procedure is expensive--especially those using a paced muscle. Such procedures require costly pacemakers. The cardiomyoplasty procedure is complicated. For example, it is difficult to adequately wrap the muscle around the heart with a satisfactory fit. Also, if adequate blood flow is not maintained to the wrapped muscle, the muscle may necrose. The muscle may stretch after wrapping, reducing its constraining benefits and is generally not susceptible to post-operative adjustment. Finally, the muscle may fibrose and adhere to the heart causing undesirable constraint on the contraction of the heart during systole.
While cardiomyoplasty has resulted in symptomatic improvement, the nature of the improvement is not understood. For example, one study has suggested the benefits of cardiomyoplasty are derived less from active systolic assist than from remodeling, perhaps because of an external elastic constraint. The study suggests an elastic constraint (i.e., a non-stimulated muscle wrap or an artificial elastic sock placed around the heart) could provide similar benefits. Kass et al., Reverse Remodeling From Cardiomyoplasty In Human Heart Failure: External Constraint Versus Active Assist, 91 Circulation 2314-2318 (1995). Similarly, cardiac binding is described in Oh et al., The Effects of Prosthetic Cardiac Binding and Adynamic Cardiomyoplasty in a Model of Dilated Cardiomyopathy, 116 J. Thorac. Cardiovasc. Surg. 148-153 (1998), Vaynblat et al., Cardiac Binding in Experimental Heart Failure, 64 Ann. Thorac. Surg. 81-85 (1997) and Capouya et al., Girdling Effect of Nonstimulated Cardiomyoplasty on Left Ventricular Function, 56 Ann. Thorac. Surg. 867-871 (1993).
In addition to cardiomyoplasty, mechanical assist devices have been developed as intermediate procedures for treating congestive heart disease. Such devices include left ventricular assist devices ("LVAD") and total artificial hearts ("TAH"). An LVAD includes a mechanical pump for urging blood flow from the left ventricle into the aorta. Such surgeries are expensive. The devices are at risk of mechanical failure and frequently require external power supplies. TAH devices are used as temporary measures while a patient awaits a donor heart for transplant.
Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,702,343 to Alferness dated Dec. 30, 1997 teaches a jacket to constrain cardiac expansion during diastole. Also, PCT International Publication No. WO 98/29401 published Jul. 9, 1998 teaches a cardiac constraint in the form of surfaces on opposite sides of the heart with the surfaces joined together by a cable through the heart or by an external constraint. U.S. Pat. No. 5,800,528 dated Sep. 1, 1998 teaches a passive girdle to surround a heart.
A cardiac constraint device can be placed on an enlarged heart and fitted snug during diastole. Commonly assigned and co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/114,757 filed Jul. 13, 1998 describes a method for pre-shrinking a heart prior to fitting a cardiac constraint jacket. This method includes a drug therapy to pre-shrink the heart. The present invention is directed to a method for placement of a cardiac constraint device with enhanced techniques for pre-shrinking the heart. A further object of the present invention is directed to such a method permitting greater control of the degree of pre-shrinkage of the heart.